Disks can be partitioned and different operating systems may be placed on separate partitions. Disks can also be partitioned to segregate and organize data or to generally improve efficiency. However, the organizational impetus for using partitions can also be accomplished through the use of directory hierarchies. On the other hand, disk partitions may be. required for the proper functioning of bootable operating system partitions.
Disk partitions can be optimized and others have explored ways to optimize storage partitions by placing system files at predetermined positions within a partition. The utilization efficiency of disk partitions has also been improved by using partitions sized to m to nth powers. Methods have also been developed for providing quick access to multidimensional data by using nested partitions.
Disks can be arranged into logical drives and these logical drives can be grouped or striped into known redundant array of independent disk RAID groups. At the very simplest level, RAID combines multiple hard drives into a single logical unit. Thus, instead of seeing several different hard drives, the operating system sees only one. RAID is typically used in processing dedicated to storage-intensive tasks, such as video and audio editing. RAID refers to a hard disk technology which can be used to provide redundancy and increase performance. There are several variations of a RAID configuration referred to as levels. Each level provides different performance or fault tolerance benefits. RAID configurations are commonly found in data critical applications.
Disk partition efficiencies have improved in general, but they have not addressed problems in the intelligent digital disk recorders iDDR segment of the market. An iDDR system must operate on as few disks as possible for cost reasons, but at the same time must provide high throughput data access such that multiple streams of video and audio may be optimally retrieved and stored. The intelligent digital disk recorders iDDRs market requires precise load balancing of operating system access, metadata/database/paging access, and media access must occur.
Higher speed recording is required for an on-demand manufacturing system for both increased throughput and reduced manufacturing cost. For an in-store on-demand replication application, reduced cycle times are desired to improve delivery time to the customer. For single optical pickup recording, dual layer DVD recording can take approximately 15 minutes. Known multiple optical heads in optical disc storage devices use the multiple heads in a non-synchronized manner to improve data recording and retrieval rates and for improved data access time for the device. However, a further faster recording time is needed to attract consumer use of in-store, on-demand replication services.
Accordingly, there is a need for symmetrical storage access on intelligent digital disk recorders iDDRs that overcomes the limitations of existing partitioning and storage balancing techniques for iDDRs.